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Premiere of Movie “Return to the Hiding Place” Concludes on Today

A film based on a true World War II story, and filmed in part at Hope College and in Holland in 2010, will be shown at Hope College’s Knickerbocker Theatre as part of the premiere release.

“Return to the Hiding Place” will be shown on Friday, May 23, at 1:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m.; Saturday, May 24, at 1:30 p.m. and 4 p.m.; and on Tuesday, May 27, and Wednesday, May 28, at 4 p.m.

The film is rated PG-13.

Slated to open in a dozen cities including, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, San Antonio, Texas and Washington, D.C., on May 23, the multi award-winning film stars John Rhys-Davies (“Indiana Jones,” “Lord of the Rings”), Craig Robert Young (“NCIS: LA,” “Hawaii Five-O”), David Thomas Jenkins (“CSI: Miami,” “Bold and the Beautiful”), Rachel Spencer Hewitt (“Fly by Night,” “A Civil War Christmas”) and Mimi Sagadin (“The Dilemma”).

“Return to the Hiding Place” is based on the true story taken from the autobiographical book of the same name written by Hans Poley that recounts his experiences as a student resistance fighter during the Holocaust in World War II.

When Corrie ten Boom realizes the rising Nazi empire will swallow Holland and create the holocaust of every innocent Jew in secret death-camps, she faces the deadly threat of these “Death-Skull Storm Troopers” with a surprising remedy: an army comprised of untrained teenagers.

Around that same time, brilliant young physics student Hans Poley chooses not to join the Nazi party. To protect him, his parents force him into hiding in the home of Corrie ten Boom. While in hiding, he witnesses the atrocities toward the suffering Jews and decides he must do something.

Hans is drawn by resistance fighter Piet Hartog and the love of Piet’s life, Aty van Woerden (Corrie ten Boom’s niece), into an intricate web of espionage and clandestine activities centered in the famous Hiding Place.

As part of Corrie ten Boom’s army of untrained teenagers, Hans, Piet, and their friends navigate a deadly labyrinth of challenges to rescue the Jewish people in their modern-day, panicked exodus from death while embarking on a nonstop, action-packed hunt with the underground involving Gestapo hijacks, daring rescues, codes in windswept old windmills, and stunning miracles in one of history’s most famous dramas. Climaxing in the true, breath-taking rescue of an entire orphanage of Jewish children marked for mass execution by Hitler’s assassins, the film captures the sobering tale of Hans and the youth movement that dared to resist one of history’s cruelest tyrants.

Directed and produced by the father-daughter team of Peter C. Spencer and Petra Spencer Pearce, “Return to the Hiding Place” also features a crew that includes editor Josiah Spencer and co-producer Jeff Canavan.

Premiering to a sold-out screening at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, “Return to the Hiding Place” has garnered several awards to date. The movie was selected as “Best Feature Film” at the Bel-Air Film Festival, Central Florida Film Festival, San Antonio Christian Film Festival and Life Fest Film Festival. In addition, it also garnered awards for “Best Cinematography” and “Director’s Selection” at the Bel-Air Film and Life Fest Film Festivals and was recently chosen as the “Official Selection” at both the Projecting Hope Film and Mission Fest Vancouver Film Festivals. “Return to the Hiding Place” has also been recognized by Yad Vashem, Israel’s official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust.

Parts of the film were shot at Hope College and in the Holland area in 2010.

Additional information regarding “Return to the Hiding Place” is available at hide-movie.com.

Tickets are $7 each and are available at the Events and Conferences Office located downtown in the Anderson-Werkman Financial Center (100 E. Eighth St.). The office is open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and can be called at (616) 395-7890. Tickets can also be purchases online at hope.edu/ticketoffice.